Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) | Hansard source

'It was a start,' the member for Riverina says—a modest start. Even after the then AMA president, Steve Robson, to his credit, urged his colleagues to upload and took the lead by doing it himself, that number still, years later, has not cracked triple figures. It is still less than 100 out of several thousand. It's not quite perhaps the failure of the COVIDSafe app, but, frankly, it's pretty darn close.

That is why we are acting to upload the data for the specialists themselves. They won't have to do it. We have access to all of that information, including the out-of-pocket costs that they charge, and we will populate the Medical Costs Finder so that patients do go into that enormously important process of health care knowing what they're going to be charged and knowing that they may have a choice in their community about different specialists that they would be able to access based on the fees that they would be charged.

The government is not going to accept the amendments that have been circulated by the member for Kooyong, but we do understand the intent behind them, and I'll talk a little bit about them during the debate on those amendments. They come from a good place, and I think they identify a range of issues that we intend to work with stakeholders on and are working already with stakeholders on as we design the Medical Costs Finder changes that will be enabled by the passage of this bill. I thank members for their contribution to the bill so far and look forward to further debate in consideration in detail.

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